Rockinawsome's Hideout - Yes, I realize awesome has an E

I BEAT DRAGON AGE

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:00:26 GMT

No movie, book, or even game has brought me this close to bliss (and I played Mass Effect). Bioware deserves a big hug.

Stay the fuck out of Buffalo

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:22:44 GMT

So I was in Buffalo last night, watching a play at the celtic theatre--which is actually pretty nice--when I got back to my car however, I found that my passenger side window was smashed into tiny bits. This is on a nice side of town. My gps, mp3 palyer, and wife's track phone were all stolen. That's the 2nd time I've been to Buffalo and been robbed.

I yelled Fuck You, Buffalo at the top of my lungs, having had a bit to drink, and waited to see if I had garnered anyone's attention. To my surprise, no one wished to defend Buffalo's honor. It seems Buffalo is one miserable shit hole.

My wife's sister happens to live in the city, and had a murder/shooting on her street over the summer.
I fucking hate Buffalo. Give me Pittsburgh, Erie, or some cities from the south like Charleston, Lexington, or Memphis. But fuck Buffalo.

Anyways, aside from this rant, I'm just curious why I can't seem to find a gps online with a transmitter for locating the unit after it's stolen, since according to Buffalo police, who were actually very nice and helpful, "this sort of thing happens all the time".

Modern “Neurasthenia:” Curing Your Restlessness

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:42:44 GMT

This was undoubtedly one of the best things I could have ever read. I've struggled with this sort of thing my entire life, but didn't realize what it was. To have it all coalesce for me in this article, and for this writer to provide me a way out, makes me feel greatly supplemented for the rest of my life with an understanding that will allow me to cut away all the clutter and confusion in life. And since I still have the majority of that life ahead of me being a mere 23 yeas of age, I'm thrilled to find advice worthy of great scholars and tutors for only the cost of what I pay for my internet. I really can't say enough great things about this article and writer.

http://artofmanliness.com/2009/07/20/ modern-neurasthenia-curing-your-restlessness/

*Edit
I should mention that this article--http://artofmanliness.com/2009/09/20/paradox-of-choice/
-- is a great supplement. It deals with the economic idea of "opportunity cost" and applies it to Neurasthenia.

Government is killing Silicon Valley innovation

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:32:23 GMT

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Foremski/?p=673&tag=nl.e539

Though this article seems undeveloped, it makes me raise an eyebrow. I'm not sure I agree with everything 100 precent, but over regulation is the hallmark of leftist government.

How to disable Windows Sync

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:57:39 GMT

Since the search results for how to do this were crap -- I came up with a simple way of doing this. I don't like messing with msconfig if I don't have to. msconfig is there for debugging windows, not for managing startup features, and this is what most of the search results I found were suggesting. But this is a topic for another time.

To keep things short, here's the steps I used:

*NOTE, this does not work with UAC turned off. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this is.
(Insert vista sucks comment here).

1.) Go to C:\Windows\System32

2.) Create a folder as a sub-directory (the folder can be anywhere, but a sub directory is the easiest to make and keep track of (I called mine 'mobsynccrap').

3.) Find mobsync.exe in the current directory.

4.) Right-click it. Select properties, find the security tab, click the advanced button. Find the Owner tab on this new window.

5.) Change the owner by clicking edit. Now another window will pop up. Under "Change owner to:", highlight the current user and click okay. A prompt may appear saying it will have to do this or that, if it does just say okay.

5.2) (An addendum here, I forgot to mention this step!)
Go to the permissions tab. Highlight the user again and click edit. Now highlight the user on this page and click edit, now click the checkbox next to full control and click okay.

Finally, click okay on the remaining window, this will warn that you are about to change permissions. Click okay...again.
6.) Cut and paste mobsync.exe into new directory.

7.) You're done! No more idiotic automatic transfers of files you never wanted on your portable devices.

VOTE FOR MY DAD! VOTE TURNER!

Tue, 12 May 2009 18:29:59 GMT

So, I went around setting up signs for my dad today. He's running for county controller in McKean county. On the off chance someone googles this race and happens to come across this post, I'm writing to inform the McKean County voter (Pennsylvania) (and everywhere else I can, for that matter).

Basically, we have an election where the incumbant is responsible for the detrimental state of the economy in McKean county. Why? Well, as Tom Ball told my dad before he decided to run against him (to paraphrase), there's no sense in fighting the system because the county court house is a mess. Ahh, yes -- he was attempting to rationalize the fact that he had let tremendous tax hikes pass through the county without so much of a quiver of his lip (and he call's himself Republican). In 10 years, he allowed property tax to rise 260 percent. This from a county that no one wishes to reside in, in the first place. McKean county sees very few of its young people stick around because its more beneficial financially to live elsewhere.

To bring up even more dirt, Tom Ball lacks the credientials that my father posesses: he wasn't even elected to the position which he has resided over virtually unchallenged for the last 14 years!

He found it convenient to hire on a full-time accountant to do his job for him, rather than live up to the fact that he doesn't have a Masters in Business, or a tremendous financial background like residing over controller of a multi-million dollar construction company.

The sad fact of the matter is that Tom Ball is merely part of the "good 'ol boy network". He hasn't done much more than collect a paycheck. He shows no sign of ambition or a need for change.

That's why I say (not speaking for my father), to heck with Tom Ball and his old do-nothing cronies. Elect Randall Turner for county controller! If we don't change, we will continue to watch our county deteriorate, and we will watch as the great days of yesteryear slip forever beyond that faint, glorious horizon.

Bradford, a major city in McKean county, once boasted more millionaires per capita than any town in the NATION. Surely, we can return to age of prosperity, if we will only be so bold as to take chances on new companies, open the doors to free enterprise, and set loose the common small business man to work the land as God intended, free of the tyranny of outrageous tax hikes and petty politicians.

Jellyfish fight terrorists

Mon, 04 May 2009 11:09:36 GMT

Finally, the dicks of the sea do something useful:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/ 0905-jellyfish_fight_terrorists.htm

E-Card Greeding

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:07:15 GMT

Just thought I'd post a warning here, in case someone else has the same spam and needs to google it.

E-Card "greeding" is obviously malicious and harmful, but I didn't take any chances by downloading it.

The file the spam Email asks you to download comes from: 66.83.239.226. The link in the email contains an .exe file, needless to say, don't click it!

I took the time to post it here because it slipped by the Google spam filter, and it has no record on the internet yet.

New Battlefield Sucks

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:13:52 GMT

I've played the beta, and it's the worst battlefield game ever made. While the game is ascetically pleasing and charming to look at, it plays clumsy, has poor design, and is downright irritating.

The game is "free", but you'll need to pay for "Battlefield Points" to acquire new clothes, weapons, emotes, etcetera. So that whole bit about EA seeing a new way to do business -- as seen in a certain magazine article (Games for Windows, I'm looking at you) -- sheer garbage. EA not only has space reserved during the beta for ads, but it's willing to make you pay for anything remotely interesting about the game.

When you play the actual game, you will discover that planes are now even harder to control, lag spikes are all too common (this is a beta--so this can be fixed with fewer people on the servers), crouching does nothing in terms of avoiding damage, and sprinting seems disabled.

The most irritating part of this game comes in the form of its RPG-like elements. Players have levels which enable them to receive all sorts of bonuses --the only problem is some of these bonuses seem to make players virtually invulnerable. Killing a level 30+ player with a level 5 and under character was pretty much impossible (and believe me, I'm not what you call lousy at shooters).

The game breaks down three classes: soldier,
commando, and something else I didn't care about.

I chose the commando.

Sniping the enemy was as effective as throwing rice at them, facing the wrong way in a wind storm. Though red numbers appeared above the heads of the enemies I tried so desperately to pick off, they would merely lumber about, taking their time to find me, absorb 3 or more hits to the body region, and miraculously kill me a 100 yards away with a machine gun.

Stabbing is equally ineffectual. I may as well try to chop a tree down with a butter knife as kill a high level player with a commando knife. I felt like I was an actor in a B-rated remake of the movie Psycho, hacking at my prey repeatedly before my prey decided it hadn't really been hurt that bad, run away, or turn around, and kill me with a shotgun.

In player chat, the topic frequently became about whether or not "good" players (usually higher 30+ level) were cheating or not. One considerate fellow made it his job to run fraps to be sure -- he failed to find any cheating.

The problem with this game is that it's much more RPG than it is shooter, and for an RPG -- it sucks. You're not finding loot, you're paying for it, with real digital money.

If you however, enjoy touting over your friends how much better you are because of how much time you've speant playing a game which isn't any fun, and enjoy creating better characters not based on any fantasy world achievements, but on real world success -- this game may just be your thing. But don't expect your friends to stick around, or to like you for anything more than that fat lump in your pants -- that is, your wallet.

I didn't stick around either, I quit playing when I realized that 5 tank shells later, I still couldn't kill a high level player.

Disclaimer: (This is an informal review, no research has been done of any kind, other than what I experienced first-hand. Errors may be plentiful. *Hell, it hasn't even been proofread or edited.)

Niccolo Machiavelli

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:32:38 GMT

I'm fairly certain Niccolo Machiavelli wasn't the greatest guy in the world, but he has some excellent quotes I keep stumbling across.

(Like in Medieval 2: Total War)

Here are some of my favorites:

“Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.”

“Before all else, be armed.”

“Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.”

“God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us”

“Politics have no relation to morals.”

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”

“Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.”

“Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.”

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

“It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope”

“There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt”

“You don't avoid such a war, you merely postpone it, to your own disadvantage.”

“He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.”